Tag Archives: NHL

Sometimes, the most telling way to learn what you did right is through the eyes of your opponent. After his team lost 3-2 to the Capitals at the Verizon Center Friday, Philadelphia Flyers forward Brayden Schenn complimented the Caps’ play … Continue reading →

Ah, the NHL referee: scorned as biased and incompetent, blamed for teams’ misfortunes, accused of sight deficiencies and births of questionable legitimacy.
Kerry Fraser’s paperback Final Call: Hockey Stories from a Legend in Stripes hit the shelves this week, and Fraser provide fascinating insights into being a professional referee. He shares some unique stories from his up-close view of thirty years of professional hockey.

For the most part, Ol’ Helmet Hair succeeds—yet he still missed some calls, as we Capitals faithful who chanted “Fraser Sucks!” might expect. And, as Fraser admits, he heard those chants loud and clear throughout his career. Continue reading →

Hockey is a fluid and complicated game. Sabermetrics’ VORP and OPS and WAR seem to fit baseball well, if a bit coldly. Hockey doesn’t lend itself to discrete analysis the same way baseball does — for baseball, at its core, is a very individual sport when compared to hockey’s constant interaction between players on the ice (not to mention 18 players on each team changing lines on the fly).

Still, observational and emotional analysis can benefit from a reexamination; stats aren’t the end-all of analysis, but sometimes delving into the numbers can shed a different light on a debate. I will try to avoid, as Andrew Lang once wrote, using statistics “as a drunken man uses lampposts — for support rather than for illumination.” Continue reading →

Part of maturing as a professional athlete is figuring out what routine and mindset make you play consistently at the top of your game. For being only 22, the Caps’ Braden Holtby sounds like he has a lot figured out already.

Braden Holtby wearing the Hardhat
(Photo by @cnichols14)

This summer, the major change to his offseason routine was actually allowing himself to rest more—counter-intuitive for someone who’d usually start working out as soon as he got home in the offseason. Holtby felt, however, that pushing himself too far in the summer affected his play in the second part of the season… Continue reading →

The Washington Capitals will revel in retro this season: 16 away games will have the Caps in white throwback jerseys, with red pants and white helmets.

Per the Caps’ press release, here are the opponents who will see the old-school look… one can only hope that those teams with throwback sweaters of their own will follow suit (apologies for the pun). It would be great to see the Devils in their old pizza-box unis, the Habs rocking the stripes, and so cool if the Jets break out their original kit. Continue reading →

For those of you who were holding off pre-ordering HBO’s “24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic” to see if HBO was going to announce a Blu-Ray version (as I was), wait no longer: HBO will be releasing Pens/Caps on DVD only.

HBO’s Sports Media Relations department confirmed that no Blu-Ray version is planned; they also pointed out that “this [will be] the first time a ’24/7′ has ever been available for purchase.” In other words, baby steps. Continue reading →